Dominic West to take West End role
February 21, 2011
British actor Dominic West, star of HBO’s The Wire, is to return to the London stage this summer in a new production of Simon Gray’s 1970 play Butley.
Dominic West
West, who is about to star in new BBC drama The Hour penned by Abi Morgan, will take on the role of Butley, an alcoholic academic in the throes of a mid-life crisis. The role was originally played by Alan Bates, and starred Nathan Lane on Broadway in 2003.
Harold Pinter, who directed Bates in the first West End production in 1971, called the character of Butley “a remarkable creation” and said in his introduction to the Faber collection of Simon Gray’s plays that he “found its savage, lacerating wit hard to beat… The extraordinary thing about Butley, it still seems to me, is that the play gives us a character who hurls himself towards the destruction while living, in the fever of his intellectual hell, with a vitality and brilliance known to few of us.”
The play will be directed by Lindsay Posner and run at the Duchess Theatre from 1 June 2011. West will star alongside Paul McGann.
Chichester Festival Theatre’s musical production of Love Story is currently playing at the Duchess, with Tim Firth’s Sign of the Times following from 7 March starring Matthew Kelly and Gerard Kearns.
LINKS
Book tickets to Butley starring Dominic West at the Duchess Theatre
Applause Magazine – August 1997
August 27, 2010
Published between1996 and 1997, Applause was a newsstand and subscription magazine devoted to UK theatre.
Edited by Clive Hirschhorn, it was published by ticket agency Applause and aimed to provide theatregoers with informed comment, interviews, features, reviews, and gossip about the plays and players making news in both London and New York. It also provided special offers and discounts on West End shows and event.
CONTENTS
Issue 11, August 1997
Read Applause magazine, issue 11, August 1997
Applause Magazine - August 1997
Regulars
OFFSTAGE GOSSIP
ONSTAGE REVIEWS
DIARY
APPLAUSE THEATRE CLUB
CD REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
NEW FACES – DOMINIC WEST
SPECTRUM DANCE, TV & OPERA
NED SHERRIN
PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE – THELMA HOLT
OFFSTAGE BROADWAY GOSSIP
COMPENDIUM
SHOWS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE – CLARE RAYNER
Features
TURNER PRIZE – KATHLEEN TURNER
BARBICAN’S LOST MUSICALS: JUBILEE
THE APOCALYPSE OF THE HORSEMAN
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
REMARKABLE CAREER – JULIE WILSON
ALAN BATES PROFILE
MARTIN McDONAGH INTERVIEW
READ
LINKS
PDF: Read Applause magazine, issue 11, August 1997
ISSUU: Read Applause magazine, issue 11, August 1997
Ian Charleson Awards
July 21, 2010
We might have missed it but the publicity around the winners of this year’s Ian Charleson Awards seemed particularly muted.
Even the Sunday Times, the sponsor of the awards, gave little promotion to the nominations or winners.
This year marks 20 years since actor Ian Charleson died on 6 January 1990 of AIDS-related causes, only eight weeks after playing Hamlet in Richard Eyre’s production at the National Theatre.
He was an extremely accomplished actor, appearing in film (Chariots of Fire), TV (Oxbridge Blues) and numerous stage roles, both plays and musicals, including Guys and Dolls and Fool For Love.
The awards were established to commemorate and celebrate his life, and The Sunday Times and the National Theatre collaborate annually to present awards for outstanding performances anywhere in the UK, by actors under the age of 30 in a classical role.
Maybe the private awards lunch held annually should be webcast by the National, so everyone can celebrate the UK’s most promising actors?
Links:
Read Alan Bates’ 1990 tribute to Ian Charleson
